Trump is doomed

Pat Cunningham

Wednesday

Aug 16, 2017 at 3:09 PM

All through the nearly seven months that Donald Trump has served as president of the United States, I've been predicting that he won't likely remain in office for the full four years to which he was elected. My sense of the matter has been colored, of course, by my distaste for the nonsense The […]

All through the nearly seven months that Donald Trump has served as president of the United States, I've been predicting that he won't likely remain in office for the full four years to which he was elected.

My sense of the matter has been colored, of course, by my distaste for the nonsense The Donald has been peddling all along to America's boobosie. And now he's finally gone too far, thereby sealing his political doom.

Trump's lame effort to draw a false equivalence between the blatant racists who gathered this past weekend in Charlottesville, Va., and the people of principle who confronted them is the last straw. His claim that the good guys and the bad guys were equally distributed among the two sides is ringing hollow among all but the most dimwitted and gullible of his supporters.

It's important, I think, to take note of the manner in which Trump made this foolish blunder. His tirade was not scripted and not expected. Even his closest aides were taken by surprise. Some of them seemed more than a little uncomfortable to hear their boss peddle such baloney.

This was not a calculated political strategy agreed upon by the president and his top handlers. Rather, it was an impulsive tirade from a man who resents having to distinguish between the good guys and the villains in Charlottesville. It was an awkward effort to protect, as best he could, the white supremacists who comprise a part of Trump's political base.

The president seemed to think that he could put the Charlottesville matter behind him if he blamed everyone involved in the situation and glossed over the excesses of the racists who stirred up the disorders. But it hasn't worked. An early reading of public reaction to Trump's effort suggests that he's only worsened the political trouble in which he finds himself.

Coming, as it does, before the ongoing investigation of Russian meddling in last year's presidential campaign is concluded, this latest problem suggests that public support of Trump won't be widespread if Special Counsel Robert Mueller brings charges against him.

If I were a betting man — and I am — I'd be willing to wager that Donald J. Trump will not last through next year as president of the United States.